Crab 2018: Rotary hosts another sold out Crabfest

Virginia Jorge is the keeper of auction paddles, rolls of quarters for the quarter auction and stacks of Kemmy’s Pies up for sale all to benefit the Willits High School scholarship fund and Harrah Senior Center.
Photos by Aura Whittaker

Who can resist a dinner of all-you-can-eat fresh crab direct from Fort Bragg, generous bowls of spinach salad, crusty French bread, homemade macaroni and cheese and warm baked ziti? Apparently, the more than 200 guests at this year’s Willits Rotary Club Crabfest could not. On Saturday, Jan. 20 the Willits Community Center was packed with hungry locals looking for a good meal and a good cause.

With three different auctions — a silent auction, a live auction and a quarter auction — the crowd was busy holding up paddles and cheering prize-winners. Add a no host bar and a favorite local band, The Bassics, and you have the recipe for a good time. Local auctioneer Rachel Britten used her fast talk and Southern charm to keep the bidding game entertaining and the funds multiplying.

Willits Rotary Club “worker bee” Jolene Carrillo said this year’s Crabfest may just be the best turnout they’ve ever had with more than 200 tickets sold and all 500 pounds of fresh crab consumed. Event organizer, Rotarian Ann Alumbaugh, said the event keeps getting bigger and that last year she expected 150 people and they sold out. So, she said this year she planned for 200 and they already surpassed that number, too. Alumbaugh estimates at least 95 percent of the Willits Rotary members volunteer for the Crabfest event.

“We have a wonderful club,” said Carrillo. “Really, we have one of the best Rotary clubs in California. And I’m not saying that just to be saying that... We have other Rotarians that come from other areas and come through this way and they all say ‘God, you guys have a great club.’ We laugh a lot and we have a great time. We do a lot for our little community here. Last year we raised over $100,000 for the community. And other years we’ve raised more than that.”

Proceeds from the Crabfest are split between the Willits High School scholarship fund and Harrah Senior Center, said Alumbaugh. And, she stressed that “Rotary takes nothing” monetary from the event.